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Rooney, France gain welcome relief

PARIS - England striker Wayne Rooney and the French national side gained much needed boosts on the pitch in Tuesday’s latest round of Euro 2012 qualifiers.

Rooney, whose private life has been thrown into turmoil over allegations of him sleeping with a prostitute, scored the first goal in England’s impressive 3-1 away win over Switzerland to make it two wins from two matches and erase memories of their poor World Cup.

France’s World Cup was even worse than England’s, returning after the first round and best remembered for the farcical goings on off it, but goals by Karim Benzema and Florent Malouda saw them to a fluent 2-0 away win against Bosnia - only their second win in 11 matches.

However, it is a win that comes against the team coach Laurent Blanc considered the toughest in their group and with several key players suspended for varying lengths of time over their roles in the players strike in South Africa.

There were big wins for both Germany - 6-1 over former national coach Bertie Vogts’ Azerbaijan with Miroslav Klose’s insatiable appetite for goals seeing him score a brace - and a new look Italy ran out 5-0 winners over the Faroe Islands.

World Cup finalists the Netherlands edged to a 2-1 win over Finland with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scoring a double but Portugal’s post World Cup woe continued as they followed a humiliating 4-4 home draw against Cyprus with a 1-0 defeat away to Norway.

The only good thing coach Carlos Queiroz - heavily criticised after their exit to eventual champions Spain at the World Cup - can take from it is that he is not responsible for the results as he is serving a six month suspension for insulting anti-doping officials.

A 1-0 defeat by Norway - the Scandinavian side’s first over their opponents in nine matches - was just about bearable but Scotland avoided what would have been even by their standards a new low in coming from behind to beat minnows Liechtenstein 2-1.

However, their winner came in the seventh minute of time added on at the end of the match through Stephen McManus - sending them top of their group.

Rooney will have some explaining to do to his wife Colleen over the stories but at least he will be returning on the flight a happier man having scored his first goal on the international stage in a year.

England coach Fabio Capello, who saw Adam Johnson and Darren Bent score the others, paid tribute to Rooney’s resilience.

“You saw the game, no? I think he played well,” said the Italian, whose side suffered a double injury blow during the game as Theo Walcott and Jermain Defoe were stretchered off.

“He was at the centre of the play, the centre of the movement. I think the pressure was strong for him but he played well.”

Both France’s goals came midway through the second-half, Benzema scoring his ninth goal in his 29^th appearance with a finely-taken shot and Malouda, one of the few players to play anything like to his level in South Africa, adding a second.

It left Blanc a delighted man.

“Our use of the ball was very good and, contrary to what happened on Friday (against Belarus), we got forward quickly,” said Blanc, who had tasted defeat in his first two matches in charge.

“The fact we played deeper allowed us to create space and we have players up front, like Karim, who like space. We produced a marvellous result tonight.”

Klose may have boosted his international tally to 55 making him joint second all-time scorer for his country alongside Joachim Streich, 12 behind Gerd Mueller, but he gave the team’s younger players a warning.

“There was room for improvement, our conditioning let us down,” he said.

“We kept our shape tactically, but we have many young players and they need to make the next step up now and reach the next level.”

Similarly Italy coach Cesare Prandelli was not going overboard after his side’s win over the Faroes as he seeks to restore their battered image after a disastrous defence of their world title under Marcello Lippi which saw them come home after the first round.

“We’ve won two games, that’s the most important thing. We’re looking to develop our style of play, things are progressing slowly but these games are never easy, you still have to play them,” he said.